Jeff Louder Wins Park City Stage in Front of a Home Crowd

8/21/10 - With more than 30 minutes to go Jeff Louder of BMC Racing Team launched his solo attack in the second to last stage of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, presented by Zions Bank. Louder held onto his lead and won in front of his home crowd.
 
The Heiden Davidson Orthopedic Criterium, followed a one-mile loop, climbing Park City's historic Main Street before plummeting down Swede Alley at speeds exceeding 40 miles per hour.
 
Thousands of screaming spectators lined the course as the race began. With less than one lap underway, Alex Dowsett of Trek-LIVESTRONG started to attack off of the front of the group. It wasn't long before he was caught and then a barrage of other attacking riders went up the course.
 
With every acceleration, riders were dropping off the back of the peloton. Taylor Phinney of Trek-LIVESTRONG made an aggressive attack taking the first intermediate sprint.

 
Jeff Louder (BMC Racing Team) soloed to victory ona a difficult stage in Park City.
photo © Mitch Clinton / www.clintonphoto.com

The day belonged to Louder as he made a super human effort riding solo for close to half of the race. "The course was obviously very challenging. I have to thank the fans for today, it was insane," said Louder, "That is for sure, the biggest crowd I have won in front of. Without them I don't know how I would have done it. The cheering softened the hill a little bit."
 
After Louder had crossed the line with his arms held high, there was a group sprint where Jai Crawford of Fly V Australia took a distant second place, with former Tour of Utah Champion Francisco Mancebo of Canyon Bicycles a close third.
 
Louder was a long time friend of the late Terry McGinnis, the previous executive director of the Tour of Utah. "I really had my thoughts all day on Terry," said Louder. "He was one of my best friends. He trained with me for years. Once I was out there and I felt like I had a chance I felt like I had him with me and it meant a lot to think of Terry today."

With no change in the general classification, Levi Leipheimer will go into the final day of racing in the AT&T Leaders Jersey with minute twenty-eight second lead. "It was a tough course and a really great crowd," commented Leipheimer, a former Utah resident. "Here we are at 6,000 feet, you could really feel the effort."
 
Eric Heiden, former five-time Olympic speed skating gold medalist, a former pro-cyclist for Team 7-11, and today's sponsor stated, "It was really great how well Park City embraced this race. I think for the riders it was a spectacular event. This was a hard criterium for these guys and you saw it very early on in the race. It was one of those chamber of commerce days here in Park City and I hope we can do this again next year."
There was no change in the Jersey competition with Leipheimer still in the AT&T Yellow Leaders Jersey, Francisco Mancebo of Canyon Bicycles in the Utah Toyota Dealers King of the Mountains Jersey, Fly V Australia's David Tanner still has the XO Communications Sprinter Jersey, and his teammate Darren Lill hung on to the Siegfried & Jensen Best Utah Rider's Jersey.
 
There was no change in the top five general classification riders as well. They are Leipheimer with a total time of 8:12:36, Mancebo in second with 8:14:04, Lill in third place with 8:14:25, Zajicek fourth with 8:14:33, and Ian Boswell of BISSELL Pro Cycling Team is in fifth place, with a time of 8:15:05.
 
After the criterium, there were several changes in the overall team competition. BMC Racing Team moved from fifth place to first, replacing Trek-LIVESTRONG, which is now in eleventh place. Fly V Australia moved from third to second place. Team Type 1 moved up from eleventh to third place. BISSELL Pro Cycling Team dropped from second place to fourth, and Jamis Sutter Home presented by Colavita remains in fifth place.
Going into tomorrow's fifth and final stage, the Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort road race, the riders will face four European style climbs with over 11,000 vertical feet of climbing. The race will begin in Park City and follow a difficult 100-mile course to a mountain top finish at Snowbird.

For a complete list of results, go to www.tourofutah.com